There's No Smoke Without Fire
by GorgeousLadyDi
Summary: Puck threw the cigarette out of the window and quickly closed it. He could hear someone coming upstairs. "Puck?" It was Quinn. "Are you there?" Quinn walked into the bedroom. "It's very smoky in here. Where's the fire?"


Puck threw the cigarette out of the window and quickly closed it. He could hear someone coming upstairs.  
"Puck?" It was Quinn. "Are you there?" Quinn walked into the bedroom. "It's very smoky in here. Where's the fire?"  
"Very funny. I just threw a ciggie out of the window because of you! I thought you were mom!"  
"Good, maybe you'll smoke less, that way."  
"I'm serious. I haven't got any money to buy more. Can you give me some, Q?" He asked.  
"For cigarettes? I don't think so. Anyway, how can you think I've got any money?"  
"What about your job? You must be rich by now. You've worked so many hours…"  
Quinn looked tired. She had been working for Sheets 'n' Things for three weeks and she wasn't getting much sleep.  
"That's what I want to talk to you about," she told her boyfriend. "I'm exhausted. Can you help me with my homework?"  
Puck laughed. Usually Quinn was the one helping him with his homework. She really was tired.  
"I'll try, but I don't know how much of a help I'll be" he said.

* * *

"This is useless!" Quinn cried later that afternoon. "You're not helping me at all!" She was somewhere between pissed off and desperate. They've been doing this since she got home.  
Puck sighed. Quinn was the intelligent one, how could she expect him to help her out?  
"Look, Q. Maths is my worst subject. If you need help, ask my mom. Don't shout at me because that won't help you."  
"I can't ask your mom. She'll blame it on my job, and then she'll make me stop working. I really need the money."  
"But you also really need to revise for your test…" he said.  
"Yeah, and I'm working tonight. I won't have time. Unless…"  
"Unless what? I don't like the sound of this…"  
Usually when Quinn had said 'unless', Puck ended up doing something he really didn't wanted to.  
Quinn thought a little while longer and then smirked.  
"You can work in my place! You need the money and I need time to study. What you think?"  
"It sounds good to me." Obviously, he couldn't say 'no' to Quinn – No one could. "Will your boss have a problem with that?"  
"I don't think so. I'll call her to let her know" she said.

* * *

Puck was enjoying working at Sheets 'n' Things. Everyone was nice and the boss even let him leave for a cigarette, occasionally.  
"I'm going for a cigarette break, okay?" Puck told the boss, and walked outside where two other workers were already smoking.  
Puck took his cigarette packet out of his pocket, but it was empty.  
"That's not a problem, you can have one of mine" said one of the workers, taking out a cigarette and handing it to Puck.  
"You're Quinn's boyfriend, aren't you? I'm Jake, nice to meet you, man."  
Puck shook Jake's hand, "I'm Puck" he said. As he lit his cigarette, Puck looked at Jake more closely. He looked about eighteen or nineteen. The other boy was about the same age as Jason.  
"Quinn's a nice girl, but you're a lot cooler than she is" said Jake. "She never comes out here with us, man."  
"That's because she doesn't smoke" Puck replied.  
"She's a goody-goody" said the other guy.  
"Hey! That's his girl you're talking about, be nice" Jake told his friend.  
Puck finished his cigarette, dropped it on the floor and stepped on it. "I'm going back inside. Nice to meet you, guys."  
"Yeah, nice to meet you too, man" Jake replied. "Do you want to hang out later? We're meeting some friends after work."  
Puck thought for a second and said "Okay. I'll meet you here."

* * *

Quinn stared at her Maths book. The numbers seemed to move around the page and she could hardly keep her eyes open. Her head eventually fell on the book, and she slept on her desk.  
She had been working hard to get money since she found out she was pregnant and had to move in to Puck's house.

* * *

Later that night, Puck waited outside Sheets 'n' Things for Jason and Brody. He was still wearing his working uniform.  
He thought for a moment that he should call home to tell Quinn where he was going, but he knew she would never let him go if he told her. "What she doesn't know won't hurt her… She won't even know I've gone" he thought.  
When Jake and Brody arrived, Puck noticed that they had changed their clothes.  
"Puck, man, you need to change that uniform." Said Brody. "Sheet's 'n' Things uniforms aren't cool."  
"I haven't got anything else with me" he replied. "So, where are we going?"  
"To the park. Our friends will meet us there" Jake said.  
Puck thought it was strange that they were meeting their friends at the park so late at night but decided not to say anything to Jake and Brody. He didn't want to sound 'uncool'.

* * *

When they arrived at the park, Jake introduced Puck to the group. They were all older than Puck. Most of them were drinking beer and smoking. One of the girls looked at him and said "What are you wearing? That shirt is really… bad."  
Puck blushed and, while the rest of the group was laughing, tried to explain that it was his work shirt, but nobody heard him.  
"Want a beer, Puck?" Jake asked.  
"Err… no, thanks. I'm not thirsty" Puck replied. "I'll have a cigarette if anyone's got one."  
The group laughed again. Puck started to wonder why he agreed to come. He was feeling more and more uncomfortable as time went on.  
"Yeah, we've got cigarettes. Just not the kind of cigarettes you usually smoke." Brody said. "Do you know how to roll your own?"  
"I've never tried" Puck said quietly, with a shrug, embarrassed again. Things were getting worse. Now he felt like an idiot. Plus, he kept thinking of how pissed Quinn would be when she woke up without him being there.  
"That's okay, I'll do it." Said Jake.  
Puck watched as Jake make the cigarette and light it. Jake smoked part of it and passed the rest of the cigarette to Brody who smoked it too.  
Puck suddenly realized that they weren't smoking an ordinary cigarette; it was marijuana. Brody passed the cigarette to Puck who looked at it carefully. He'd never smoked that stuff before…

* * *

"Quinn! Quinn, wake up!"  
Quinn heard a voice interrupting her dream, and quickly lifted her head off the table. She focused her eyes and saw Puck's mom's unhappy face.  
"Quinn, why are you sleeping on your Maths book?" She asked.  
"I'm sorry… I'm studying for my test tomorrow, but I'm very tired."  
Puck's mom looked angry. "It's that job, isn't it? You shouldn't work so many hours. It's starting to affect your schoolwork."  
"I'm sorry. I work too much, I know…" Quinn said, trying to calm Puck's mom.  
"Why aren't you working now? You usually work on Sunday nights."  
"Puck went in my place, so that I can revise for the Maths test."  
Puck's mom got angry again "Puck! He can't work. I don't want him to have extra money. He spends it all on cigarettes."  
"How do you know that he smokes?" Quinn asked. She knew Puck was usually careful about hiding his cigarettes and eating mints to disguise the smell on his breath.  
"I'm not stupid. He smells like an ashtray and his room is always full of smoke" his mom replied. "It's obvious he smokes. Anyways, it's almost midnight. Puck should be back by now. Where is he?"

* * *

Quinn and Puck's mom were in the car, driving around looking for Puck. They both looked worried. It started raining hard and they still hadn't found him.  
"Maybe he's still at work…" Quinn suggested. Mrs. Puckerman told her to call him. She called him, though he didn't answer, she called Sheets 'n' Things to check if he was still there.  
After a brief conversation, Quinn turned off the phone. "He left a couple of hours ago… with Jake."  
"Who's Jake?" Mrs. Puckerman asked.  
"He works at Sheets 'n' Things. I don't know him very well, but…" Quinn stopped.  
"But what?"  
"Well, he… he…" Quinn was finding it hard to explain to Puck's mom. "He smokes… stuff… you know…"  
"What kind of stuff? Do you mean marijuana?"  
"Well, yeah…" Quinn replied.

* * *

Puck was wet from the rain and his head hurt. He had no more cigarettes and no money to catch a bus home. He wasn't even sure in which direction home was. "How do I always end up getting in trouble?" he thought. He'd been walking around for almost half an hour. He thought about hitchhiking, but decided that that could get him into even more trouble.  
He thought about what his mom would say when he got home soaking wet; if he got home. He heard his mom's voice in his head "Where have you been? Getting into trouble, I suppose. Don't pretend you've done nothing wrong. I know trouble when I see it. There's no smoke without fire…" that's what she always said.  
Puck had always had a difficult relationship with his mother, but they were very similar people. His father always said they were both as stubborn and that was why they argued so much. Puck was sometimes sorry about the mistakes he made – getting Quinn pregnant, smoking... - but when his mother shouted at him and an argument started, he never wanted to apologize. That only made things worse, of course, and made his mom think that Puck didn't know right from wrong. He did. He just wasn't very good at keeping out of trouble.  
"I wish mom was here now, though…" He thought. "At least she would take me home."  
Suddenly a car stopped beside him and the window rolled down. Puck's first thought was to run away, but he heard a familiar voice calling his name.  
"Puck! Thank God! Where the hell have you been?!" It was Quinn. "Quick, get in the car before you freeze."  
Puck opened the door and got into the back of his mother's car.  
"Have you got anything to tell me?" His mom asked him. "I know you went out with Jake, and Quinn has told me he smokes drugs. Well? Have you been getting into trouble?" His mother sounded calm, yet serious.  
"Quinn! Why did you tell my mom that?" Puck shouted at her.  
It was his mother that replied. "Don't shout at her! You're the one who's in trouble. What were you thinking, going out with those… those… druggies?"  
"I didn't know they smoked drugs, mom… And, before you ask, no, I didn't smoke anything." He said.  
"How can I trust you? You pretend you don't smoke cigarettes too, but I know you do" his mother said. "I know that there's no smoke without fire, so don't try to hide the truth from me." She raised her voice. "This is the last time you go out without asking me first. And you won't be allowed to go out for a month!"  
"That's not fair! I didn't do anything wrong!" Puck exclaimed.  
"You always decide that I've got into trouble without knowing the whole story. Do you really think I would do drugs? I'm not stupid." He said, though his eyes focusing on Quinn's baby bump.  
"You shouldn't do stupid things, then. What am I supposed to think? You don't tell me where you are. You won't stop smoking, even though you know it isn't healthy. When you act like a responsible adult, I'll treat you like a responsible adult."  
"And when you treat me like a stupid kid, I act like a stupid kid, too" Puck said.  
Puck's mother didn't say anything else. Nobody in the car spoke for the rest of the journey home.

* * *

As Quinn walked into the bedroom, Puck was closing the window. She looked at him suspiciously.  
It was almost three weeks since the night when Quinn and Mrs. Puckerman had gone out to look for Puck. He hadn't left the house since then, except to go to school, and neither he nor Quinn were allowed to work at Sheets 'n' Things again. Quinn didn't have a problem with that, thought. She had almost failed her Maths test because she worked too much. But she did miss the money, and so did Puck.  
"How did you get money to buy cigarettes?" she asked him.  
"I didn't. I closed the window because it was getting too cold in here. I wasn't throwing anything out of the window" Puck laughed. "It's the truth, Q."  
"Okay, I believe you… But your mom doesn't. You'll have to convince her that you've stopped."  
Puck knew that wouldn't be easy. His mother was still angry with him. Mrs. Puckerman believed he had smoked what Jake had offered, and Puck couldn't convince her it wasn't true. His mom also didn't believe he had stopped smoking.  
Things were getting better thought. Puck and his mother were still talking to each other and were arguing less. Spending more time at home had helped him understand his mother better. He had stopped trying to prove he hadn't smoked marijuana that night. It wasn't important anymore.  
"It's okay Q. The important thing is that I did the right thing. Mom will believe me eventually." Puck told her "…or not" he laughed.  
"I'm sorry if I got you into trouble, Puck…" Quinn said "But I was worried about you too."  
Puck pulled Quinn and wrapped her around his arms "That's okay Quinn… I got myself into trouble, just not as much trouble as mom thinks" he said. "Mom was almost right. I nearly did it and it felt awful when they laughed at me as I walked away. I was so close to going back and just smoking the stuff…"  
"But you didn't, and your mom will realize that this time there was really smoke but no fire" Quinn joked. Puck shook his head and pulled her into a deep kiss.


End file.
